Ladies and Gentlemen, I present....

my son:


The whole 4d ultrasound experience was AMAZING. It was so cool to get a visual of all his kicking and squirming, and to see that precious little face for the first time was just unbelievable.

I've reached 28 weeks now, so I'm kind of getting into countdown mode already. My activities at work have shifted to figuring out what I can finish before I leave, what I have to transition and what I'm going to do when I get back. I have at most 12 weeks left in the office!

I'm just getting SO excited to meet my little guy :)

Wild Child, part 2...

kick, kick, kick, twist, turn, jump(!?!?!), kick, kick, KICK-KICK-KICK, flip... all. day. long... and all night strong... with just a few power naps thrown in there for good measure.

Thank goodness my husband has a ton of energy, because it's going to take a lot to keep up with this little guy once he is unleashed on the world, LOL!

Despite the annoyance factor especially when I am TRYING TO SLEEP, I still love feeling him move around and I feel like it's really helping me to bond with him. You can easily feel his motions (and even see them) from the outside, so it's giving hubby a chance to get in on the bonding action too.

I've posted a couple of belly pictures on my challenge thread on my blends so those of you who have access there can go check those out if you're interested. I'll post something here once I get bigger and it's more dramatic ;)

the downfall of polite society?

OK, so I'm not usually one for public rants, but I had the most ridiculous experience on the el (Chicago public transit train) today and I just had to get this off my chest...

Granted, I am not huge yet. I don't exactly look like I'm about to keel over or anything. However, I am OBVIOUSLY pregnant. I kind of understand if people don't think I need someone to stand up and offer me their seat. I'm in pretty good shape, so I can handle standing - for now. Then again, would it hurt to ask? It's still a moving vehicle - not the smoothest mode of transportation - and can be pretty unstable through the hard turns. My center of gravity is changing every day, so balancing is a little trickier than it used to be especially when I am wearing a heavy backpack with all my work stuff in it. Again, fine, I kind of understand.

What I CAN'T understand is how - as the train gets more and more crowded - I am getting roughly jostled, pushed around, squeezed in and forced to stand almost entirely on one leg while I reach sideways for something to grab on to. How, when in my obvious discomfort, I make eye contact with several young men seated all around me and they quickly look away. How, when I finally snap and say "Doesn't anyone have any conscience at all anymore?" everyone looks at me like I am crazy and one guy actually has the nerve to look straight at me and say "WHAT??"

I stood for the entire trip (about 30 minutes) awkwardly balancing and trying to shield my belly from the large bag of the guy standing next to me who kept wedging it in toward my abdomen. I wonder if anyone on that train felt bad at all about it. I guarantee that today SOMEONE will complain about the annoying pregnant woman on the train.

I just don't get it.

Tick, tock...

It's funny how quickly our perception of time can change. One second I am agonizing over the fact that I'm going to keep growing for almost 4 more months - an eternity, the next I am freaking out because I only have 3 1/2 months left to finish the nursery, baby-proof the house, find a pediatrician and about a thousand other things I may or may not have planned for yet. The day I found out I was pregnant seems like ages ago, but at the same time I can't believe I'm already almost 24 weeks along.

Despite my time perception confusion, things are going extremely well so far. I feel really healthy and haven't developed any of the typical pregnancy maladies yet. The baby still squirms around a lot, especially at inopportune times, but I'm starting to kind of get used to it now. I do love to feel him doing his thing and try to interpret his likes and dislikes based on his responses to my actions. My energy level is great for the most part, but I don't have quite the stamina I used to. I'm sure I'll keep slowing down more and more as time goes on!

Preparations are going well. We finished registering for EVERYTHING already. We just put it all on the list, knowing that we'll end up buying most of it for ourselves, but at least it's all picked out. We alsosigned up for a bunch of first-time parent classes at the hospital and those will start next month. There is still so much to do, but I feel like I'm on track for now.

I'm still working a LOT. I've started getting asked if I am still working and wonder who has the luxury of quitting or going on leave half way through their pregnancy. I plan to work right up until my due date, unless the baby comes sooner. Anyway, I'm trying to really perform well at my job NOW while I still can. I'm really hoping for a promotion or at least a decent mid-year bonus to make up for the stagnation I expect to experience for a while after I get back. Yes, I do plan to come back to my job full time after the baby is born unless I have some kind of complete mind-warp. Of course, you never know and just in case that mind-warp ends up happening, I am ready with a plan B :)

Wild Child...

Is there any correlation between a baby's behavior in utero and once they're out in the real world? This little munchkin of mine is squirming ALL day long and is already giving me some pretty forceful kicks. I'm still not completely used to the whole thing, and have been stopped mid-sentence (once in the middle of a rather large meeting!) by the activity in my belly more than once. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the fact that he's moving around because it gives me that reassurance that he's healthy... I just hope I don't have a major wild child on my hands.

It's a boy!

I just got back from my doctor's appointment and wanted to share the news :)

Everything looks great - baby has a strong heart and all his fingers and toes. He's already a stubborn little thing (takes after his mom) and refused to turn the way the ultrasound tech needed to get all the measurements, so I had to get up and walk around TWICE before we could finish.

I was a little concerned about my weight gain (7 lbs in the last 5 weeks), but the doctor assured me that I'm right where I should be and not to worry about it - just keep doing what I'm doing.

more later...

The sheepish return to blogging...

I've been thinking lately that I might want to get back to the blogging now that it's been... yeah, more than 6 months since I last posted. I was in kind of a funk for a while and I just didn't feel like I had anything interesting to say. Well, I'm not sure I have anything interesting to say now, but I really miss writing and I miss interacting with all of my (former) blog readers. Anyway, here goes... I hope I can reconnect with at least some of you!

Let me just cut to the chase first and tell you that what I talk about is going to be in a somewhat different tone now that I am... 20 weeks pregnant! I am due the first week of October and couldn't be more thrilled. Of course, I'm also scared out of my mind... but in the best possible way ;) I definitely feel ready for my life to change and for me to become a mom, but I'm a little freaked out about all of the unknowns. I've seen poeople react in all sorts of different ways to becoming a parent and it's impossible to predict what I'll be like once baby comes. I'm striving to achieve my ultimate goal of remaining sane and balanced, but who the heck knows if that's even possible.

Staying healthy has definitely still been a focus of mine and I think I have done a decent job of it. I have gained about 11 lbs so far, which is pushing the limits of where I should be at this point, but definitely not horrible. I haven't gained that weight by eating a lot of McDonalds, Starbucks and Dairy Queen... My food choices have been good, but I am hungry all the time and tend to let myself have another serving of the good stuff if my body asks for it.

I have NOT been able to keep up with the working out the way I planned to. I imagined myself sticking to the same routine I was doing before the pregnancy, just slowing down the running a little and lifting lighter weights. Well, I went through a phase where I was too sick and weak to work out at all and that just set me up for a world of hurt once I was finally ready to get back on the workout wagon. I think I've lifted weights approximately 3-4 times in the past 4 months and my performance on the treadmill has been dreadful. The frequency of my workouts is OK, but my fitness level seems to have gone WAY south. I just don't feel right exerting myself - getting the body temperature or the heart rate too high - so I'm stuck with long slow and wimpy. Then, I run into problems with my bum hip, which is bothering me more than usual since I've been preggers and gets aggravated after any workout longer than 30-40 minutes.

All in all, I am feeling good! I have my big ultrasound next week so it will be great to see the little one again, which I haven't done since week 7. Also, I will be finding out if it's a boy or a girl, so I'm really excited about that! The funny thing is that I didn't want to know but I let my hubby talk me into it and now that we are going to find out, I am even more excited about it than he is. I'm going out on a limb here and guessing that it's a boy, but I won't be surprised to find out it's a girl. I definitely don't have a preference either way since their are pros and cons of either gender and I am most concerned that baby is healthy.

Well, I don't want to exhaust all of my material on the first day... I'll try to make this more than a biannual occurrence ;)

Irene, Stef, Chantal and Connie - thanks for checking in on me during my hiatus! I've missed blogger land!!